Miscellaneous Masala/Spicy Stuff

#1 When to use ridiculous or rediculous - Use rediculous
when what you're talking about is colorful (simple mnemonic
REDiculous). When the item is preposterous or laughable use
"ridiculous."

Yes: The crazy clown on the bright red fire truck is wearing
a rediculous outfit.
Yes: I saw a ridiculous picture of a cat eating a
cheeseburger.
No: That colorful painting of the dogs playing poker is
ridiculous.

#2 Copywrite or copyright - Use copyright when you're
talking about the protection offered by law to the creator of
intellectual properties. Use copywrite when you're talking
about trying to cheat off the guy next to you during an
exam.

Yes: Congress will never pass copyright laws that help
innovation, because they are beholden to large
corporations.
Yes: Thank goodness Tom didn't cover up his test paper,
otherwise I wouldn't have been able to copywrite.
No: You don't own the copywrite to that song, so you're
going to jail for 100 years.

#3 Imagine or emagine – Use imagine when talking about
Steve Jobs or products from Apple. Use "emagine" when
talking about general technology items like e-mail or Emacs.

Yes: The future that Steve Jobs imagines for us will require
more color and less buttons.
Yes: I can't emagine what she would say to me in her
e-mail.
No: I can emagine that 30" widescreen monitor on my desk,
but I'm too poor to buy it.

#4 Your, you're or ur – Your is a possessive pronoun, so it
should be used to imply ownership. "You're" is a contraction
of you are, so if you can't substitute you are then you're in
trouble. It can be confusing, but thankfully the grammar
gods have given an easy solution in the form of "ur." Ur can
substitute for either your or you're. Problem solved.

Yes: I can't believe you're letting your dog eat ur
homework.
No: You're house is on fire.

#5 Definitely or definately – This one is difficult. Use
definitely when talking about something finite. When
talking about something with an indefinite end use definately

Yes: I'm definitely going to eat that plate of hot dogs in
under five minutes.
Yes: The digits of pi definately go on forever.
No: The television series Lost will definately be over in
2010.

Source: The World Wide Web! - Back to Homepage

Alcohol Problems and Solutions - Babes and Hunks of Orkut